DON'T QUESTION ME!!!

Here's McCain positively seething through an interview with the Des Moine Register. (There are more vids here, but I chose my favorite three and did transcripts which are below. And Space Cowboy just posted another.) What really comes through in these clips, aside from the fact that he's a surly jagoff, is how much he hates being questioned—not getting questions, but being questioned; that is, having someone challenge what he asserts to be the truth about himself or Sarah Palin or anything else. We've had eight years of that shit. It doesn't work. The American president is an employee of the American people—which is a concept that Republicans have evidently forgotten.

Transcript for Video 1:

McCain: You know, you just threw out the word, uh, that I, we had a detour from the Straight Talk Express, um, I think it would be valuable if you gave me some examples from—for an assertion of that nature.

Reporter: Well, such as—

McCain: Sure.

Reporter: —when the ad saying that Obama supported comprehensive sex education for kindergartners—

McCain: He did. He did. He did! I'll be glad to provide you—we have the documentation. I'll be glad to provide it to you. Now you may not accept that documentation; we have it and we found out it's true.

Reporter: You can take this small slice of truth that may not represent the real truth of the situation; is that being straight?

McCain: Yeah, but I didn't do that. I didn't do that. Now you can assert that I did; I didn't. I've got the facts to back it up. He strongly supported that legislation, and I'll be glad—it's on our website. It's on our website.

Reporter: It seems like with the rescue plan, we have just this, this crisis in confidence. People don't trust the president, the congress—they don't trust the media. How can you go about rebuilding trust with—without, I would contend, 100% absolute truth?

McCain: Because I've always had 100% absolute truth. And that's been my life of putting my country first. And I'll match that record against anyone's. And I'm proud of it. And an assertion that I've ever done otherwise I take strong exception to. And you'll have to provide better proof than a bill that Senator Obama supported that clearly calls for the teaching of sex education of young children. So, um—

Reporter: Even something like the, the ad implying that, the, uh, lipstick on a pig reference was to Governor Palin—that just seems like that was not worth your seriousness in this campaign.

McCain: Well, that certainly is your opinion, and I respect your opinion, but it's not the facts that changes my positions and my honorable service to this country. So I respect your opinion; I strongly disagree with your assertion.

Transcript for Video 2:

Reporter: So, Senator, you're talking about surrounding yourself with people with a lot of experience—

McCain: I always have.

Reporter: —and yet you picked a vice presidential running mate who doesn't have a lot of experience in public office, so why should voters be confident that Sarah Palin has the experience at this point to succeed you if something—if you weren't able to serve out your term as president?

McCain: Well, thank you, but I disagree with your fundamental principle that she doesn't have experience. I remember when a governor came out of California, didn't have the experience—I remember when a governor came out of a small state, uh, called Arkansas, that he didn't have the experience. She has been a mayor, she's been overseer of, uh, billions—I don't know how many billions—of dollars of natural resources, she has been, uh, uh, uh—she's been a member of the PTA, she's been a governor, she's been a mayor, she's been, uh, she's had vast experience on one of the fundamental challenges of America and that's energy, so, uh, with due respect, I strongly disagree with your premise that she doesn't have experience and knowledge and background. I fundamentally disagree, and I'm proud of her record, and it's not an accident that she's the most popular governor in America—the most popular in America! It's not an accident that she cut taxes, she gave money back to the taxpayers, that she oversighted the negotiations that took on the oil companies that resulted in a forty billion—B, billion—dollar natural gas pipeline that's gonna bring natural gas to the lower 48. And she understands the challenges that families face today, and, uh, in a rather unique way. So, uh, and by the way—uh, I'll stop. I'll stop there. But you and I just have a fundamental disagreement and I'm so happy the American people seem to be siding with me.

Reporter: Why do you think they're siding with you, because there seems to be—

McCain: Because they like her! They appreciate her! They know leadership when they see it! They—

Reporter: But there seems to be a pretty strong disagreement over whether the people who are great fans of hers, and there are people who feel very uncomfortable that she does not have a lot of experience in public office—

McCain: Mm hmm.

Reporter: —you know, even among, you know, fairly conservative Republicans—

McCain: [either sarcastically or trying and failing to sound sincere] Really?!

Reporter: —who like her policy proposals—

McCain: I haven't detected that.

Reporter: —so how do you reassure them—

McCain: And I haven't detected that in the polls, I haven't detected that amongst the base—ya get twenty thousand people that come to our, uh, our rallies, uh, so, again, I fundamentally disagree. Now if there's a Georgetown cocktail party person who, quote, calls himself a conservative and doesn't like her [waves hand dismissively]—Good luck. Good luck. Fine.

Reporter: You just dismiss those who don't—

McCain: Sure.

Reporter: —feel comfortable with her level of experience—

McCain: No, I don't dismiss them. I think that the American people have overwhelmingly shown their approval. Are there people who will be detractors of her? That's fine. That's fine. That's, that's what politics is all about. Uh, some people allege that, uh, that others may have spent too much time inside the Beltway, and too much time not out in touch with the American people. Some people that, that, that, that know Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't address the American people on television. So, uh, I, I—people are free to make up their minds. But to argue somehow that she is not qualified is something I categorically reject.

Transcript for Video 3:

Reporter: Throughout your adult life, am I right, as a veteran and a member of congress and now as someone over 65, have you always been covered in your adult life by taxpayer-financed healthcare plans?

McCain: Uh, I was out of the military for awhile before I went to Congress, but, uh, you know, that's a—interesting statement, um, so, and I have never, um, been an astronaut, but I think I know the challenges of space. And I've never done a lot of things in life that I think I'm familiar with. I've always been a free enterprise, um, person who thinks that families make the best choices for themselves and their future. That's a dramatic different—different philosophy that my Democratic opponents, in my view, who think that government is the answer. Senator Obama wants to create a huge healthcare bureaucracy for America. We've seen that movie before. So, uh, the answer is that most of my life, uh, in serving my country I have had, uh, healthcare. I did go a period of time where the healthcare wasn't very good.